When Things Are Working - Something Still Feels Off
There is a particular moment leaders struggle to name.
Not when things are failing. Not when pressure is acute.
When things are working.
The business is performing. Decisions are being made. Options are available.
Yet something no longer fits.
Not wrong enough to stop. Not clear enough to change.
Just… misaligned.
You notice it when:
choices increase, yet none feel quite right
momentum continues, yet direction feels vague
success remains, yet meaning thins
reinvention is sensed, its shape still unclear
This is not indecision. It is judgement detecting change before language catches up.
Many leaders assume this feeling means they need:
a better plan
a sharper strategy
a new opportunity
Often, it points somewhere quieter.
The thinking that brought you here no longer matches the terrain you are entering.
When that happens, adding more options rarely helps.
What matters first is engagement, with the questions beneath the choices.
The most consequential decisions are rarely made in crisis. They are made when things are going well, and misalignment goes unexamined.
Most leaders know when something has to change long before they know what that change should be.
That moment deserves space.
Alan